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MistaSparkle

SnowJapan Member
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Posts posted by MistaSparkle

  1. The Japanese govt. made such a stupid move by sending troops to Iraq.... even for non-combat purposes. Japan was well above this fray, but the idiots running this country asked for terror threats, and asked for something like the kidnappings when they got involved. They could've stayed out of this mess. STUPID STUPID STUPID!!! \:o

  2. In this day and age when we have military types boasting about surgical strikes and precision bombs, the US media does incredible damage to democracy by not showing, in graphic detail, the consequences of the war (and Im talking about US and Iraqi casualties). "Embedded" journalists are basically kept on a leash, and major news networks wont go near the gruesome truth so they wont upset their audience, whcih would lead to a loss of ratings/market-share and advertising. I have heard so many americans say... "We have the most precise weapons in the world. We can hit the hair on a camel from the other side of the world. No civillians will be killed in the war..." But... people need to see the results of war they support. I have a feeling that if the brutal truth was shown, maybe everyone wouldn't be so gung-ho about going to war in the first place.

  3. Adobe Premier is a great prog. Its a little bit more difficult to use than iMovie because it's targeted for more of a professional market, but it's not too tough to learn the basics. It's a $700(usd) prog, so I would recommend getting yourself a free bittorrent client here and then getting the torrent file for premier here

     

    ;\)

  4. I'm pretty sure you can't watch PAL signals on a Japanese TV. I think you might be able to if you run a PAL signal through a pal/ntsc VCR which should automatically convert to NTSC...

     

    ...which means you wont have to worry abut being able to watch those european scat videos in PAL format on your NTSC tv.

     

    lol.gif

  5. I would steer clear of Sony VAIOs. I bought one a couple of years ago and there are a few things about it that really pissed me off.

     

    1. Once you buy sony, you're locked into buying more of their crap. I had to pay 4500 yen for a piece of sh*t plastic adapter to use an external monitor. (a capability that was advertised, except that they leave out the detail that you need to buy an adapter)

     

    2. You can't change the operating system. I tried loading an english version of XP into my machine, but after doing so I realized that all the drivers for things like the touchpad and function keys are locked someplace inside their system restore CDs.

     

    3. See #1. After I decided to go back to the original Japanese OS with the restore CDs, it turns out you can only boot the restore CDs with a sony drive (no cd-booting with my non-sony drive). So I had to go out and waste a man (absurdly overpriced for a simple external cd-rom) on a useless drive just so I could restore my machine.

     

    4. Poor quality. My screen hinge fell apart after a year, so now I have to prop the screen up against a book or something or else it falls flat.

    The battery doesn't hold a charge anymore (it's only been 2 years), and a new one costs something like 1.5 man.

     

    The vaios look pretty... I just wish they worked as good as they looked.

  6. Went to an enkai last weekend, and after the booze had been flowing generously for a while, conversation moved into personal matters... Talking about gfs/bfs/spouses/etc... Now I don't remember the word used to describe it, but this one guy I work with is paying 100,000 in something like alimony to his ex-girlfriend (not wife, wasnt even engaged)! Someone else explained that in Japan, if you live with a girl for more than 3 years, regardless of your or her income, you are required to pay break-up money to support her!!! So, naturally, I asked if guys normally refuse or if lawyers get involved... No fight, no lawyers. I asked why. His answer: "samurai spirit."

     

    eek.gif

  7.  Quote:
    Originally posted by Ocean11:
    > had me slapping my forehead and rolling my eyes

    That actually sounds like quite an entertaining performance. Have you considered what you're going to do for the sequel?
    Well in true matrix fashion I would continue with sequels entailing monologues of half-baked philisophy and drawn out death scenes intertwined with hard forehead slapping and eye rolling. ;\)
  8. The whole realty business in Japan is a big scam. Reikin aka "thank you money" is more like "FU money"... they charge you just because they can. And the security deposit is a total wash too. I left my last apartment absolutely spotless... cleaner than when I got it, and they charged me something like 3man in cleaning fees. mad.gif

  9. For those outside looking in on the US (and many from within), anyone besides Bush is an obvious choice. Unfortunately the Bush propaganda machine has 100 million dollars in campaign money to pump the population full of patriotic garbage... Roughly 45% of Americans are under the impression that Bush is good for the country... This is a scary time for the country indeed...

  10. Watched a couple of Japanese movies recently...

     

    壬生義士伝 (Mibu Gishiden)[ imdb ] - A samurai drama about the shinsengumi, which were the special personal guards of the shogun. Well done, good fight scenes, and not too much overacting (which most j-dramas are plagued by). The Japanese was too difficult for me to follow, but I was able to get english subtitles which were well written.

     

    and

     

    GO [ imdb ] - A movie about a Japan-born, half-north korean half-japanese high school kid (starring Kubozuka Yosuke), and the problems he faces and choices he has to make growing up in japan. I thought the subject matter was handled pretty well, the editing was good, but it had some overacting in a few parts. Either way, I enjoyed it, and would definitely recommend it. The Japanese in this movie is not so diffucult (about the same level as what you hear in J-Drama), although there were a few parts I needed someone to explain to me.

     

    I downloaded 凶気の桜(kyouki no sakura) [ imdb ] also starring Kubozuka Yosuke, and watched the 1st half hour, but couldn't understand at all, and wasn't able to find subtitles. A Japanese friend saw it and said he liked it alot...

     

    Any of you seen any good Japanese movies? Recommendations?

  11.  Quote:
    Originally posted by RayInJapan:
    All of that "Nader cost us the election" stuff from the demos is just crap! Just more stuff for them to whine about. Although Nader got a percentage of votes during the last election, there is no proof that his votes would have gone to demos instead.
    Agreed... The dems failed to appeal to the progressives, and they got exactly what they deserved, a big fat L. For a change they should take responsibility for the failure in 2000 instead of scapegoating Nader.

    ...and G-mon gives good advice... the more disgusted you are, the more you need to vote! Low voter turnout due to disgusted non-voters is part of the reason America has gone into the crapper.
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